AT THE END OF THE DAY, NICKY WAS STILL A PSYCHOLOGIST AND NO AMOUNT OF TECH DESIGN WAS GOING TO CHANGE THAT. At the end of the day, he still prided himself on the fact that he could be called Dr. Green, not Mr. Green, and that people found him trustworthy enough to talk to and listen to. He liked that he was able to help people.

He had wanted to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. originally, Terran having had pull and could have easily gotten him a job, but after all that had happened, he decided that he didn't want to work with agents. Sure, he thought it was best that someone should be there to make sure that the people keeping everyone safe were taken care of and checked on, but there were regular people who needed help, and those were the people he thought needed it the most, at least with the kind of care he could give.

He had started out taking adults, as those were the first to require his aid, though they weren't very frequent. They still weren't, but there were enough that he was paid well and they were all alright enough that he didn't think he had to worry much about them coming in weekly or multiple times a week.

But then he took in his first kid: Harry Osborn. Harry was a mess when he first came in, Nicky wasn't going to sugarcoat it, and it was even worse to see that he was so young, still in middle school. A child that young shouldn't have to go through pain that tremendous and submit himself to abuse that detrimental.

After Harry, after all they had been through and all they had learned, Nicky had never fully been the same. He learned so much about what he needed to do, how he needed to treat things, how he needed to protect himself, because he internalized so much, he needed to make sure he would be okay so he could make sure everyone else was.

Then Diana came into his life. Diana Smith, he had experienced a lot of stress when she showed up. Being sent to him not for sessions but for his more secretive job, he had kept a close eye on her, intrigued by this young girl who seemed to be doing exactly what Terran had wanted everyone in the complex to do, Nicky included. She was so young with so much pain and room for hatred, but more often than not, he just found an almost irrational amount of forgiveness. Theirs was an interesting and long journey, but he was glad to see it find even footing, not the ups and downs of the mountains she had to climb. Of course, there were uphills, but for the most part she was doing fine.

He could still name every single one of his patients, many of which had long since left him, but he remembered them. He remembered everyone.

"I'm sorry about what happened at the park," Harry said, as if he hadn't texted Nicky multiple times since that encounter to apologize, and the older man simply sighed and reaching out to ruffle his hair.

"It's okay, Harry," he repeated, "Seriously. I'm okay."

The three of them were sitting in the loft, eating snacks and cuddled up in blankets. It was after school and Diana and Harry decided to drop by, Nicky not having any patients that day, so they didn't have to wait for him to show up.

"How are you kids doing?" he asked, because he was the adult and also their psychologist, so it was kind of warranted that he did; not to mention that he worried about them near every day.

Diana shrugged, taking another chip from the bag. He looked at her closely. Recently, she had been rather chipper, almost too chipper, but now she had stopped smiling altogether, barely even managing a small one in greeting to him earlier.

She sighed, noticing that he was staring. "I'm just having a hard time, it's not that big of a deal, we're fine."

Harry reached out and pulled her closer, and she just let him hold her, barely even able to relax into his hold, sighing heavily. Nicky gave her a sympathetic look and she tried to give him a smile in return.

"So who was that guy that ended up getting you away?" Harry asked, because it could never be said that he gave up easily.

Nicky coughed, glancing over towards Diana briefly. "His name's Sam."

Diana gasped loudly and he shushed her, but was drowned out by Harry's demands to know who this 'Sam' character was and why Diana knew about him but he didn't.

"Sam's just this guy I went to high school with, Diana knows about him because I wouldn't shut up about him to Rhett," Nicky said, patting the boy's head and shushing him, "Don't get yourself worked up, you know I tell you everything."

Even Diana winced at his lie; that just wasn't fair to anyone involved.

"Wait, so—wait, are you saying that—confirm or deny this, is this a thing?" Harry asked, stammering and stopping, motioning with his hands.

Nicky shrugged, feeling very much like a teenager at a sleepover—at least, what he assumed it would feel like, he never had sleepovers as a teenager. "I guess so? I mean, I've liked him since I was in high school, so..."

"This is a thing!" Harry declared, turning towards Diana, "Dina, this is a thing, what do we do?"

"I think they should go to the top of the Empire State Building and hardcore make out for fifteen minutes," Diana monotoned, and Nicky groaned while Harry voiced his agreement, stating that he could get the two men up there if he wanted.

"I don't want," Nicky said, holding up a hand, "Kids, don't get too involved in this, it's not gonna happen."

The two paused to just stare at him with the most unimpressed looks Nicky had ever seen. He mumbled unintelligibly, stuffing his mouth with more chips to keep from having to respond, instantly coughing when he did.

"Okay, I need to be healthy, I'm gonna get some carrots," he sighed, standing up and heading towards the kitchen, opening the fridge.

"Don't sell yourself short, Nicky, I bet he thinks you're great," Diana called out, bunching herself up around her blankets, "And I wanna meet him, what are you doing, you promised that I could."

"He doesn't even talk to me," Nicky argued, partly interrupted by his phone buzzing.

Raising an eyebrow, he picked up his phone from the counter, flopping back down onto the couch, Diana and Harry immediately crawling over to look, Harry hovering over Diana who was pressed right up against his side.

"It's from Sam," Diana called out, and Harry shouted, trying to see what he had sent.

"He sent a picture!" the boy exclaimed, and the teenagers immediately started yelling, shaking Nicky, then shaking each other, nearly spilling the snacks in their excitement.

Now much more excited, if only because the others in the room were excited, Nicky opened the text with shaking hands, unsure as to why Sam had texted him and hoping that he had actually meant to.

The picture was of a garden gnome. Nothing special, just a small garden gnome with a red cap and a blue jacket.

Underneath the picture was the simple caption: 'IS THIS YOU???'

Nicky was appalled.

Ignoring the questions thrown at him, his fingers flew over the keyboard, writing out a very long winded paragraph detailing just how utterly offended he was that he brought that up, because that was ten years ago, Samuel, it's time to move on, but then he stopped, because Nicky was nothing if not a genius.

"What's happening?" Diana asked, watching as Nicky jumped to his feet, jumping into his shoes.

He pointed towards the both of them, jerking his head. "We're going out."

º º º

Sam wondered if maybe he had gone too far.

He was sitting in his desk chair at the office, taking a break from his work for a few minutes, glancing back towards his messages with Nicky. The man still hadn't replied, but it was clear that he had read it, and Sam was starting to reconsider his actions.

He had been spending time with Sarah's family, meeting his nephew and talking to his brother-in-law, before he had to go to work, which wasn't too far away, when he found a box of his old stuff when his nephew decided he wanted he and his "Uncle Sammy" to go exploring.

After his initial reaction of raw guilt at the fact that his sister kept all of his things, he was flooded with an overwhelming amount of nostalgia, staring down at the boxes filled with his old trophies, pictures, and even his varsity football jersey from high school.

After sifting around, he had found his yearbooks, flipping through and laughing at all the people he had forgotten and all the fashion and trends he was glad he had ditched. He found himself searching for Kim and Nicky, finding them mostly in the drama photos, though there were other photos of Kim scattered in various leadership photos and Nicky with show choir.

He had found himself stuck on the only photo of Nicky that wasn't him doing tech for drama. It was him in one of the school musicals, one that was written and directed by a student, the young boy dressed up as a gnome, looking very into his character, though Sam could still hear his quiet complaints to Kim before show choir practice.

The image had stuck with him as he headed to work for no other reason that it was hilarious, and possibly the worst school musical he had ever seen, but one he had gone to see three times because his younger self had been so adamant on hearing Nicky sing, as well as making sure Kim didn't hate him for not coming at least twice.

As he had headed to work, he stumbled upon a garden gnome in front of a house, and he couldn't help but take a picture and send it to the man, chuckling to himself as he finished his trek, glancing at his phone every so often to see if he replied.

But then Nicky never replied and Sam had to wonder if he had misjudged something. He had read a lot of things from that man, one of the simplest being that he respected Sam more than the bare minimum, and, with their history, he figured that he could be casual and joke with him, as he did all his friends.

That was just how Sam was, he joked and poked fun, but that was how he showed he cared.

But it had been edging on forty minutes and he was starting to think maybe he should apologize; every time he thought he finally figured this guy out, he went and threw him a curve ball.

Just as he was about to text him, two new messages appeared.

The first was a picture of a chicken in a petting zoo, two blond teenagers posing next to it with wide grins, a very familiar caption right underneath:

'IS THIS YOU???'

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I had started this out by it being a feelsy chapter with Nicky and his kids, but then it went other directions, so we're going to come back to the feelsy chapter another time, so don't worry.

So this was pure fluff, and I like to think that I put it here because there's going to be a lotta angst next chapter, and this is supposed to set up an understanding that these two are kinda friends now. Like, it's been a good amount of days (especially by Marvel standards) so they're comfortable with each other, so what happens next won't be super out of the blue.

That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!